On the road again. Headed back to the boat by bus for what I can only hope is the last time. Thirteen hour bus rides are great and all, but I really could do without them for a while.

The bus trips are always broken up—I assume at the State borders—by the bus being gone over by drug agents. The guys come aboard armed with automatic weapons, a screwdriver, and a flashlight. They then proceed to choose an air conditioning panel at random and start prying away at it until the plastic cracks enough for them to get the screwdriver through the crack when they can really apply the pressure. They keep prying until the plastic panel is dangling by its phillips head screws and clearly showing that there are no tightly wrapped packages underneath.

Also on this trip I saw a woman agent for the first time. I only mention this because her job was to come on the bus and rub each woman’s belly and breasts. At first I thought it was a service provided by the bus company, but then I noticed the Glock on her hip and pieced together the truth.

I arrived three hours late, due to us driving smack dab through the middle of Tropical Storm Sonia last night. That’s fifteen hours on the bus. Brutal. The nice thing about being late was that we arrived in Ciudad Obregon after the taco shops had opened up for the morning, meaning I got to shovel down my favorite carne asada tacos in all of Mexico. Those tacos are the only bright spot on these bus trips. After tacos I ran around the corner to OXXO to grab some drinks and snacks for the rest of the ride—I’ve really got this trip down to a science. As I came around the corner though I was stopped by smoke pouring out the front doors and bomberos hosing the place down. So much for my iced coffee.

The boat, as usual, looked just like I left her—dirty. Man does she need a good wash. I really need to get into the water again. The bottom paint was done and looks great. Should be interesting to see how well she moves through the water now, at least fifteen years since her last paint job.

The mechanic showed up with a newly fabricated mounting plate for the motor mount. Before long we had the engine sitting on all four mounts again and continued on with the rest of the engine, hooking up hoses, filling up the fluids, etc..

Tomorrow is the big day. I’ll drag the hose on board, stick it in the raw water intake, and fire this pig up.